WELCOME TO ČESKÝ T ĚŠÍN/ - a one city in two countries

Těšín lies at the edge of the Silesian on the banks of the River, at an elevation of about 300m above sea level. The inhabitants of the original fortifies site belonged to the Lusatian culture. In the years from 1287 to 1653 Tesin was the capitl town of a principality under the rule of the Piast Dynasty (Mieszko I.) A “Religious Order” issued in 1568 confirmed the Evangelical religion of the Augsburg Confession in the town and principality. In 1610, the Counter-Reformation. In 1653 Tesin came under the rule of the Czech kings – the Habsburgs. After a great fire in 1789, the town was rebuilt. An industrial quarter arose on the left bank of the Olza River. In 1826, the Chamber of Tesin was established. At the time the objects on Chateau Hill were rebuilt.

The revolutionary events of 1848 aggravated social and national problems. At the end of the First World War the Polish National Council of the Duchy of Tesin (Ducatus Tessinensis). In January 1919 – an attack by the Czech Army. In 1920 – Tesin as well as the town of Tesin was divided by a state border on the basis of a decision by the Council of Ambassadors in Paris.

The western suburbs became an independent town called Český T ěšín. The tenement buildings and public facilities built after the year 1920 following the Art Nouveau are in perfect harmony with older edifices, such as the raiway station or the printing house (1806). The period of Hitler´s occupation followed. After the war, a border once again divided town.

Fortunately the recent transformations have enabled more and more contacts between the inhabitants dwelling on both banks of the Olza River which is becoming the river that unites rather than separates.